American Bar Association Has Something To Say About Military Tribunals

And how the most telling two minutes in television, the latest from the political grapevine.

The American Bar Association, spurning a request from the Bush administration that it delay action, has voted overwhelmingly to recommend that Congress be given a say in any military tribunals in the war on terrorism. And the ABA is urging that defendants be found guilty beyond reasonable doubt, the same high standard of proof used in criminal cases against American defendants. A death sentence, said the ABA, should require a unanimous verdict.

Two European newspapers, meanwhile, are reporting that Al Qaeda terrorists seeking safe haven from the U.S. military campaign against them may now be finding it in the Middle East. The London Times said a top Al Qaeda official was in Beirut two weeks ago to discuss relocating Al Qaeda members in that country under the protection of Hezbollah, one of the three Mideast terrorist organizations mentioned by President Bush in his speech last week. And the German Newspaper Die Welt says none other than Yasser Arafat is offering $5,000 to each Al Qaeda fighter who is willing to move to the West Bank and Gaza strip. The paper says between 80 and 100 have accepted the offer.

Remember all those reports that Enron paid no federal income taxes? They all started with Citizens for Tax Justice, a left-leaning research group, which reported that Enron had paid no taxes in the year 2000 and actually got a $278 million tax rebate. Now, though, the <I>Washington Post reports that what the paper is calling a "close review" of Enron's statements combined with interviews with tax specialists indicates that Enron did indeed pay income taxes, and the story quotes an Enron spokeswoman as saying the company paid $112 million in federal taxes in the year 2000.

Barbara Lee, the Democratic congresswoman from Oakland, Calif., who voted against the use of force in response to the 9/11 attacks, has gotten a lot of hate mail and threats. But she's also getting a lot of campaign contributions. Campaign records show she's gotten $177,280 since last June, twice her usual take in such a period, and that $124,000 of that has come in since her vote against the war. Among the contributors: entertainers Bill Cosby, Bonnie Raitt and former New York City Democratic Mayor David Dinkins.